


love will not break your heart

by HeartonFire



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, First Time, Kastle Valentine Week, Smut, Stair Sex, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 21:50:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17816135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: Karen hates Valentine's Day, and this year is no different.Until it is.





	love will not break your heart

Karen had never been a fan of Valentine’s Day. Too many years of buying half-price chocolate the day after had made her something of a cynic. At least, until recently.

Last year, a new pot of white roses had appeared on Karen’s fire escape. No note. Nothing to indicate who they were from. But Karen knew.

She didn’t hold out hope for this year. Not really. Too much had happened. Too much had changed.

Sure enough, she woke up on February 14th and nothing was different. No roses. No notes. No card. No chocolates. Just Karen. Alone, in her little apartment.

She tried not to be disappointed. She knew he wouldn’t come back. He told her, in that hospital room. He left, and she couldn’t go with him.

There was a tiny teddy bear on her desk when she got to work. It was sitting on top of a little box of chocolates. They hadn’t been there the night before. Karen smiled. She wasn’t alone.

“Happy Valentine’s, Karen,” Foggy said, leaning against her desk.

“You too, Foggy. Thanks for these.”

His brow furrowed. “I didn’t put those there.”

“What?” Matt wouldn’t. They weren’t in that space anymore. They were barely back to friends, to colleagues. And he never got in until later anyway. They couldn’t be from him.

“Is there a note?”

Karen searched her desk, but there was nothing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt her heart pounding against her ribs. It couldn’t be.

“Guess you have something else to investigate, huh?” Foggy knocked on the top of her desk, jolting her out of her thoughts. “But can you get me the info on that Gnucci witness first?”

“Sure.” She set the bear and the chocolates to the side and searched through the piles of folders on her desk for what Foggy needed. She found it and brought it to him, but his eyes were still on the gifts on her desk.

“No idea who sent those?”

Karen shook her head. She couldn’t explain it. She needed proof. She couldn’t tell him until she was sure. Otherwise, she’d just look like a lovesick idiot when it turned out to be a mistake.

She tried to focus on work for the rest of the day. Really, she did. She had been staring at the same file for the better part of an hour when she realized she needed to get out. A walk might clear her head.

Foggy and Matt didn’t even look up as she left. She was in and out most of the time. Investigating wasn’t the kind of thing she could do from behind a desk. She didn’t know where she was going this time, or what she was going to find, but she had to go. She had to move. She had to see.

She was halfway down the block when she felt the goosebumps rising on her skin. It was chilly, but the sun was warm on her face. This wasn’t about the weather.

She turned, and there he was. Hood over his face, hands shoved into his pockets. A hint of a bruise shadowed his cheekbone, but he’d had much worse. She’d seen much worse.

He was whole. He was here.

“Karen.” The scrape of his voice made her shiver. She had almost forgotten how it grated against every one of her nerves when he spoke.

“Frank?”

Her arms were around him before she could stop herself. He was warm, solid. Just like she remembered. He was really here.

He squeezed her to his chest, burying his face in her hair. They stayed there, swaying a little, for a moment that might have lasted a second or an hour. He had ripped a hole in reality, just being here. She didn’t want to let go.

Frank stepped back first, scratching at the back of his head. He wasn’t looking at her.

“Buy you a coffee?” he mumbled. Karen nodded and followed him down the street to a tiny cafe she must have walked by a thousand times.

Karen watched him, ordering their coffees, his broad shoulders slouching a little to hide his face more effectively from the barista. The twenty-something behind the counter didn’t seem to care, but Karen was glad he was being careful. It meant he wanted to be out here. He wanted to stay alive. He wanted to find his after.

He brought her coffee to her, sitting gingerly across from her. He hadn’t asked how she took it, but the first sip told her he already knew. She wanted to ask him about his injuries, his nighttime excursions, the Punisher, but it wasn’t the time. Not when he was sitting here, across from her, looking at her with those deep, brown eyes that swallowed her up every time. Those eyes that haunted her dreams. Those eyes she had been sure she would never see again.

They didn’t speak, silence stretching between them like the taut string that kept bringing them back together. They sipped their coffee. Karen tried to say something, anything, but she needed to just be here. Here, with Frank.

“Walk you back to your office?” His voice was hoarse, like he hadn’t used it much lately.

Karen shook her head, hair brushing against her shoulders. She wasn’t going to get any more work done today anyway. “No. I’m heading home.” She swallowed. “Walk me there?”

Frank smiled then, a true smile, one that made him look at least ten years younger. One that made her almost forget all he had been through. What had brought them together in the first place. He wasn’t the Punisher, in this moment. He was Frank. Her Frank.

He fell into step beside her on the sidewalk. The sun was bright and cold. Karen felt the blush rising in her cheeks and she couldn’t blame it all on the cold winter air. She shivered, and Frank twitched, almost like he wanted to put an arm around her. He didn’t. She wanted to reach out and take his hand. She didn’t. She told herself that this was enough.

They reached her building faster than she wanted. Frank was going to disappear again, and she couldn’t stop him. That’s how this went. That’s how it always went.

But he didn’t. He stood in front of her, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He peeked up at her from under his furrowed brow, and Karen wondered, not for the first time, what he was really thinking.

“Karen, I, uh, I –” He was stumbling over his words, voice low and urgent.

“Frank?”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he mumbled, and she saw his cheeks turn red over the stubble on his jaw.

Karen had to remember how to breathe. Of all the things she thought Frank Castle would say to her, that had to be at the bottom of the list. Every word she ever knew flew out of her head.

“I just,” he said, stepping closer to her. “I need you to know.”

“I know, Frank.” She did. She knew. He didn’t have to say it. He had shown her, over and over again.

“Karen.” Somehow, the sound of her name in his voice was more than that. It was a promise. It was a vow.

And when his lips touched hers, it was everything she had dreamed about, since that day in the hotel. Since those days in the prison. Since that night in the diner. Since the hospital. Every memory she had of them swirled in her head.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, tongue pressing past his lips. Frank let out a low groan, pulling her tighter to his chest. She had wondered, for so long, what it would feel like, to be here, with Frank. It was different. It was more.

“Come on,” she whispered against his lips. “Come inside.”

She had a flash of a thought that he wouldn’t, that he was still going to leave, but he nodded, catching her lower lip in his teeth as they stumbled to the door. He couldn’t keep his hands off her and she nearly dropped her keys when his fingertips, rough and hot, grazed the bare skin where her blouse had come untucked from her skirt.

He was mumbling her name against her neck while she tried to lead him up the stairs. They had barely made it to the second floor when he pushed her back against the wall, hands tugging at her skirt to pull it up. It stretched over her hips and Frank’s fingertips raised goosebumps on her thighs everywhere they fell.

She gasped when his fingers found the damp spot in her panties, pressed against it to make her arch into him. He pulled them to the side, sliding his thumb over her clit. She was already soaking wet. She hadn’t expected this, but she wanted it. She needed it. She needed Frank.

She bit her lip to hold back the cries of pleasure that were bubbling up from deep inside her. Frank chuckled, pressed his mouth to hers again, swallowing her moans even as his fingers drove harder against her. One thick finger slid inside, bending to stroke at a spot that made her vision go white.

Karen’s legs shook and she felt her climax building, building, building, until it crashed over her with a cry that nearly tore her in half. She needed this. She bit down on Frank’s lip and he hissed in pleasure and pain.

“Please, Frank,” she murmured into his mouth, breath coming in gasps as she came down from the high. She pushed against him, hips grinding into his, even as the aftershocks shuddered through her.

He didn’t need telling twice. He fumbled with his belt, pants falling to his knees. In the back of her mind, Karen prayed to whatever god was up there that no one came up the stairs. She was desperate now, needy for him. It wasn’t how she imagined it, but they were here now, and she wasn’t going to give that up. Someone could interrupt them at any moment, and stop them before they even really got started.  
The thought made a fresh wave of heat flow over her. She hiked one leg up around his hip and he slid inside, stretching her around him with a growl, choked out through gritted teeth. Her back scraped against the wall with every thrust, her shirt was soaked through with her sweat and his, and the elastic of her panties dug into her skin where they were pushed aside, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but this. Nothing mattered but Frank. Frank and her. Her and Frank. She wasn’t going to give up this moment for anything, not even her own comfort. She was comfortable here, with Frank inside her. Around her.

“Frank,” she whispered. “Frank.”

“Karen. God, Karen.” Their names mixed in the air, echoing in the empty stairwell until they blurred into one sound, voices rolling over each other against the sound of their bodies moving together.

The slide of his skin against hers was almost too much. Sweat dripped off his chest. His stubble scraped against her neck while he murmured her name against her. She rocked her hips to meet his and he groaned when she pulled him deeper, the sound rumbling through both their chests. His hands slipped under her thighs as he lifted her from her feet. He was moving faster, harder against her, and she knew he was close. She was too.

She reached between them and circled her clit in time with their rhythm. Frank was thrusting so hard, Karen’s whole body shook with the force of it. She came again, walls clutching at him, holding him inside her, and he followed her over the edge with a grunt of her name.

He let her down, but her legs were like jelly. She couldn’t stand without him there to hold her up. He was breathing hard, shivering a little. He rested his forehead against her shoulder and they breathed together.

When they finally managed to slow their racing hearts, Frank pulled up his pants and Karen straightened her skirt. She took his hand and he followed her upstairs. He didn’t question it. He didn’t protest.

There was nothing stopping them now. They could be here. They could be together. They both wanted it. There was no going back. There couldn’t be.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Happy Kastle Valentine's Day (a few days late)! I hope you enjoyed this extremely smutty version of Karen and Frank's reunion. As always, kudos and comments are so incredibly appreciated. 
> 
> Thank you to the lovely [carrythesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrythesky/pseuds/carrythesky) for reading through this before I posted it and [reygrets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reygrets/pseuds/reygrets) for having this idea in the first place. Go read their fics, they're incredible! <3


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